Agata Popęda here. I did something fun a couple weeks ago with two of my colleagues at the Weekly. We binge-watched the new East of Eden series on Netflix, reviewed the novel and made a list of real and fictional places we could identify. Then, we went for a field trip that took us south to San Lucas and San Ardo, then north to Salinas, looking for the places described in the story or inspired by it.
Royvi Hernandez co-write this story with me. Celia Jiménez served as a photographer for this story. Read about our discoveries in the current issue of the Weekly (in print and online), and perhaps it will inspire your own regional explorations.
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden tells a story of two families who come to California and settle down in Salinas Valley, after the Southern Pacific Railroad, or rather 1,500 Chinese laborers, connected cities such as Salinas and King City to a larger transportation network.
One family was lucky. The Hamiltons got the worst land in the valley, but they were resourceful and practical people, a big loving family, and Steinbeck was their offspring. He lived to tell the story of his maternal grandparents.
Then, there are the Trasks—the fictional unhappy family, broken by an inner tragedy. Adam Trask ends up on a better land than the Hamiltons, and has even a better business idea (refrigeration) to take advantage of farming in Salinas Valley, but he is not able to move on from personal tragedy.
The Salinas Valley was full of happy and unhappy families when John Steinbeck grew up, listening to old stories about what was happening in the houses of neighbors and friends. To date, it’s the most important fictional portrait of South County we have.
We hope you will find our ruminations on old Salinas, King City and the surrounding areas educational or at least fun. We are curious if you have your own East of Eden anecdotes.